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County, city workers more efficient than Washington

Submitted by Aurora1 on Wed, 01/31/2018 - 3:00am

What a week! We’ve witnessed the federal government shutting down and then capped it with a good old Nebraska blizzard (although we were more concerned with the wind and snow than the incompetence in Washington DC).
As usual, we relied on Midwestern Nebraska competence from our city and county road crews to bail us from the snow storm once the wind and snow ceased. And also as usual we expected a political failure in Washington as our political “leaders” stumbled again by failing to miss the federal budget deadline.
City and county road departments and their crews left us with a satisfied smile of a “job well done” while our politicians left us taxpayers with a billion dollar daily bill because of concern whether Republicans or Democrats were going to get credit for their efforts.
Just one more political thought before moving on.
While digging threw a bunch of old notes, I found something composed many decades ago that describes today’s situation, called “Hymn to the Welfare State.” Author is unknown.
“The government is my shepherd, therefore I need not work.
It alloweth me to lie down on a good job.
It leadeth me beside still factories;
It destroyeth my initiative.
It leadeth me in the path of a parasite for politcal’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of laziness and deficient spending,
I will face no evil, for the Government is with me.
It prepareth an economic Utopia for me by appropriating the earnings of my own grandchildren.
It filleth my head with false security;
My inefficiency runneth over.
Surely the Government should care for me all the days of my life;
And I shall dwell in a fool’s paradise forever.”
***
“What I didn’t know until I had kids” might be a subject that had some familiar circumstances for many of us. This crossed my desk:
What I didn’t know until I had kids was:
* how to change a diaper on a child who is standing, in a parked car at night, while juggling wet naps and a trash bag;
* that tigers, lions and dinosaurs live in our backyard;
* the distinct sound of Cheerios crunching underfoot;
* each note, word and darned lyric of every single Disney video song written since the beginning of time;
* how effective marketing by a cereal company can get you to buy sugar-coated cereal.
RL Furse is publisher emeritus of the News-Register